Picked up a couple of boxes of (mostly) port from a house clearance sale on Friday, and yesterday got to have a look at them.

Surprise 1

One of the bottles was an old (perhaps thirty years old) bottle of Taylor's white port. In addition to the selo the top of the bottle also had an old faded duty slip. Reading the label revealed that the bottle had been first sold in Thailand. Well, you don't see that much port offered for sale in Thailand, and what there is is horribly expensive due to massive import tariffs on alcohol. That someone should dig deep to buy a bottle out there, not drink it and stick it back in his suitcase to bring home - ultimately ending up in a junk sale - is a tad bizarre. A well travelled bottle!

Surprise 2

Another of the bottles was a bottle of Sandeman Oloroso sherry. The bottle was full, the colour very pale, the foil was missing and the T stopper was not quite perfectly seated. I decided to investigate.. - and found the bottle contained Whisky! I have a vision of a poor old codger seeing out his last days in the care of an overbearing nurse, who determined that he could have sherry but not whisky - and so a kindly friend conspired with him to confound the starched dragon..

Surprise 3

I have been weighing every bottle of port that passes through my paws for nearly four years now, and recently have been catching up on bottles bought before then, also recording in more detail their condition and bottler's details, when known. In early 2011 I went on a fairly intensive buying spree, and had a lot of bottles to put away that spring. One lot was a dozen Noval '66 bought from Bonhams. The bottles were heavily encrusted in dirt and dust and whilst ten had plastic capsules, two had foil ones, so I logged them under a separate case number. Revisiting those two bottles yesterday, I rubbed a little of the dirt off the top of the capsules. In addition to the words Noval and 1966, the word Nacional also appeared.. Oh! I thought..

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly - W.S. Churchill